Wear Love. . . Colossians 3:12 - 17

On December 27 I delivered the message at First United Methodist in Marshall, Missouri

12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

15-17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

    “Love came down at Christmas. . .star and angels gave the sign.”   We sing the Christmas carol with the message of Jesus’ birth.   So the Scripture from Colossians 3:12-17 is a natural one to follow the Advent series.   The Apostle Paul was writing to Christians in the small village of Colossee in what is now the country of Turkey.    A movement there was discrediting the importance of Jesus Christ. . .         Today we are aware of many groups in our culture which disdain the Christian message.    We stand with the Colossians in needing encouragement to live out the age old message of living in love.

     The Christmas season infects us with good feelings of charity for others and love for mankind.  When we hear the Salvation Army bellringers, we are want to share with needy people.   Yes,  we want to “wear love”. What better metaphor for keeping love in our everyday living then the one of putting on your clothes?   We get up every day and get dressed.  Let’s just do it.   Love everyone.    Not as easy as it sounds, however.    We tend to be a distinctly unloveable bunch as human beings.     We can love our families. . .often we love our children with the ferocity of wild animals.   Just watch a bunch of parents at a Little League baseball game.    But, brotherly love for all people is quite a different matter.

      So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:  compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength and compassion.  If we are going to wear love,  perhaps we should consider this list of qualities as our “Under Armour.”   You may smile because UnderArmour is the brand name of popular sportswear  these days.  But the name goes back centuries.   Before knights put on their heavy metal suits, they called for their squire or servant to bring their UnderArmour to put on.       Not a bad metaphor to go along with wearing love.  but wearing love can be a tight fit.   Unless we put on the “underarmour” of humility and discipline, we will not have the quiet strength we need to have compassion and  kindness.

     Humility is not a popular quality in our culture. Humility does not sell anything in our commercial world.    Inside every one of us is a persistent voice that cries, “But what about me?    I want. . ., I need . . ., It is not fair. . .”   If we are to develop the knack for exercising brotherly love, we need discipline to look at ourselves and see our shortcomings, our mistakes and our basic human self-centeredness.    We must put our lives on pause, take a good hard look at ourselves and ask for forgiveness.  Jesus the master forgives us quickly and completely.     

       We also need discipline to hit the pause button and allow holiness to enter our life.   To be still.   To listen.   To feel the presence of holiness.  The quiet of  a sanctuary, the beauty of music.  To connect to the redeeming grace of God.

        Sometimes we need the discipline in relationships to refrain from saying things.    Sometimes it is wearing love to avoid saying something unkind.     You know the old saying,   “Silence is golden.   Duct tape is silver.”  Every opinion does not need to be shared.

     And at other times we need discipline to speak up. On November 28 in Istanbul, Turkey Pope Francis visited a mosque and emphasized that Christians are brothers to Muslims.     Millions of peace-loving Muslims reject Islamic terrorism.      In London last month when a terrorist knifed 3 people and shouted that he was Islamic, a person in the crowd was heard to say, “You ain’t no Muslim, Bruv”.   Street talk for brother.    On twitter, a hashtag, “you ain’t no Muslim, Bruv”, received thousands of responses from all over the world. . .from angry  Muslims. For years,  psychiatrists, who happen to be Muslim, have come to Marshall  from Columbia to see kids at Butterfield.   Those of us who worked with them know they were appalled at the atrocities committed in the name of Islam.    These Muslims are no more responsible for terrorists than Christians are for White Supremacists or the 

Ku Klux Klan.    We need the discipline to speak up as Pope Francis has.

   So, we put on the Under Armour of compassion, kindness, humility, discipline and we achieve  quiet strength.   We wear love.    Do we all look alike - Christians in uniform?   No, because we all have different gifts.Patsy Dehn and her sister, Marilyn Ahrens, have the gifts of working with flour in their kitchens.    John Boyd shares love by  providing snacks for the coffee hour after church.   You are invited.   Oh yes, I must not forget Patsy’s husband Roger Dehn - he does not get around very well, but he decorated 19 dozen cookies for the Baby Grace Christmas party, a very special occasion earlier this month.    If I were to ask how many people in the congregation have contributed in some way to the Baby Grace program,  90 % of you would raise your hands.    This program is truly an expression of brotherly love from our entire church.

    Let me review what Baby Grace is for those of you who may not know.  Nine years ago, in Buckner, Missouri, two young women became aware that there were 27 pregnant girls in their high school and they set out to do something to help.    Today there are 12 such programs in rural Missouri on the east side of Kansas City.    We give a bundle of 12 diapers and wipes to low income families once a week on Thursday afternoons.    We have been in operation for one year in January, and have given away 12000 diapers to almost 60 families.   From the beginning we have wanted to connect the families with every resource available in the community.  Not easy.    We support the efforts of other churches.   We have a group of dedicated volunteers, some of them members of other churches.    Recently, we were able to connect with the Mid Missouri Safe Kids Coalition in Sedalia and we were able to give 16 families new carseats.   On December 3, we had a Christmas party for babies and mothers and toddlers.  We had snacks and crafts and stories and gifts and everyone had a good time.       Baby  Grace has been our gift of love in community outreach.

     So, we have put on our UnderArmour - compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength and discipline - and we are reaching for our basic,  all purpose garment.   We must never be without it.